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Shut It Down?

By Michael Snyder, on April 9th, 2011

If the U.S. government were to shut down for a while, would that really be such a bad thing? Right now everyone in the mainstream media is freaking out as if the world is going to end, but the truth is that there have been government shutdowns before. The apocalypse is not going to happen if there is another shutdown. If Congress could find a way to get our troops and our border patrol agents paid, then what would be so bad about the government taking a “vacation” for a while? After all, when was the last time that either the Republicans or the Democrats did anything that was actually good for America? It has not mattered which political party has been in power – over the past couple of decades our “representatives” in Washington D.C. have passed an endless parade of bad laws and have gotten us into the biggest mountain of debt in the history of the world. They literally seem unable to do anything right. So would it really be so bad if a government shutdown slows them down for a while? If our politicians are going to act like a bunch of idiots, why not let them shut it down?

Think of it this way – if you could eliminate all of the laws passed under George W. Bush and Barack Obama would you do it?

I think that most Americans would.

Almost every single law that has been passed over the past couple of decades has been bad for America.

But many Americans seem to be going into a panic at the thought that the “almighty government” might not be operating for a few days.

Many Americans seem to have bought into the lie that the federal government is the most important institution in our country.

But this is never what our founding fathers intended. Our founding fathers intended for the federal government to be very limited. Unfortunately, we have turned our backs on the principles of our founding fathers.

So exactly what is this fight between the Republicans and the Democrats all about? Why have we been brought to the brink of a government shutdown?

We keep hearing that it is all about cutting the budget. In fact, House Speaker John Boehner says that his party is “damn serious about it”.

But that is a joke. The federal budget deficit for this year is going to be approximately $1.6 trillion dollars. The Republicans were asking for just $61 billion in budget cuts (3.8% of the budget deficit) and there are rumors that Republican and Democratic negotiators have agreed to a figure of $38 billion in budget cuts.

$38 billion?

Is this why the Tea Party was sent to Washington?

$38 billion would just be 2.4 percent of the $1.6 trillion dollar deficit.

Wow, that is really wielding the budget cutting axe!

Look, the U.S. government cannot spend a single penny from now on without Republicans going along with it.

The Republicans control the House of Representatives. Barack Obama and the Senate will not have a single dime to spend unless they can get the House to go along with it.

If the Democrats want money to implement Obamacare then they have to get the Republicans to go along with it.

If the Democrats want to give money to the EPA to implement Obama’s “green agenda” then they have to get the Republicans to go along with it.

In fact, pretty much whatever the Democrats want to do, they have to get the Republicans to agree to fund it.

So if you don’t like what Obama and the Democrats are doing, don’t just blame them.

Blame the Republicans as well.

Both parties are deeply corrupt and both parties have gotten us to the point we are at.

Sadly, it looks like any deal that the Republicans and the Democrats are going to agree to is going to include virtually everything that the Democrats want.

It is going to include full funding for Obamacare.

It is going to include full funding for Planned Parenthood.

It is going to include full funding for NPR.

It is going to include full funding for the EPA.

So what are the Republicans going to get?

$38 billion in spending cuts?

Is that supposed to be a “deal”?

The truth is that Boehner is a joke and he is not serious about cutting the federal budget.

But if we don’t start seriously cutting the federal budget we are heading for complete and total disaster.

David Stockman, who served as budget director under Ronald Reagan, says that if Congress is not serious about getting our financial house in order that a government shutdown could be precisely the kind of wake up call that we need….

If the Smithsonian, the Parks Service and the Cherry Blossom Festival get delayed or canceled, it’s the wakeup call that we really needed. The fools inside the Beltway are borrowing $100 billion month in and month out, and there’s nobody left in the world buying except the central banks—the Fed and the people’s printing press of China. There’s no way that’s sustainable or viable. It’s simply building up pressure in the monetary system that’s going to blow sky-high.

Look, the United States is heading straight for financial armageddon. This is a crisis of historic proportions. In a previous article on U.S. government finances, I detailed some absolutely horrifying statistics about the debt crisis that the U.S. government is facing….

*If you divide the national debt up equally among all U.S. households, each one owes a staggering $125,475.18.

*In the new budget that the Obama administration has proposed, the U.S. government would spend 3.7 trillion dollars in 2012 and by 2021 the U.S. government would be spending a whopping 5.6 trillion dollars per year.

*The U.S. government currently has to borrow approximately 41 cents of every single dollar that it spends.

*Unfunded liabilities for entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare are estimated to be well over $100 trillion, and nobody in the U.S. government seems to have any idea how we are actually even going to come close to meeting all of those obligations.

*If you were alive when Jesus was born and you spent one million dollars every single day since that point, you still would not have spent one trillion dollars by now. But this year alone the U.S. government is going to go about 1.6 trillion dollars more into debt.

*If the federal government began right at this moment to repay the U.S. national debt at a rate of one dollar per second, it would take over 440,000 years to pay off the national debt.

But even if the Republicans got every single thing that they have been demanding it would make essentially no difference as far as our national debt crisis is concerned. It would basically be like spitting into Niagara Falls.

So which political party has the correct position in this battle?

Neither of them. In fact, both political parties are a joke. They are both acting like a bunch of idiots just like they have been for decades.

So let them shut it down. The truth is that the number one threat to our liberties and freedoms right now is our own federal government.

In a recent article, J.B. Williams talked about why he thinks that it would be a really good idea to shut the government down….

I say, shut it down! The federal government has done as much to harm the union of states as it has ever done to improve freedom and liberty in America. We will be better off without a federal government, with each state able to fund and govern itself better than the Fed ever could.

Extreme threats demand extreme measures, and nothing threatens the future freedom and prosperity of the United States more than our own federal government. Enemies beyond, we can deal with. It’s the enemy within which threatens us most today. It’s time to shut it down and reset.

Just think about a few of the ways that our own federal government violates our liberties and freedoms every single day….

*If you want to get on an airplane in America today, you must either go through one of the incredibly intrusive full body scanners that are going into all U.S. airports and let airport security goons gawk at your exposed body, or you must allow airport security goons to feel you up using the new “enhanced pat down” techniques they are being instructed to employ.

*Thanks to the Patriot Act, if you are identified as a “terrorist”, you suddenly lose all of your constitutional rights. We are told that detaining American citizens indefinitely and subjecting them to “enhanced interrogation” techniques will keep us all safer.

*The federal government controls our lives so tightly that now they even tell us what kinds of light bulbs we are allowed to buy.

*Barack Obama has been pushing a plan that would create a national database that will store the DNA of all individuals who have been arrested, even if they end up not being convicted of a crime.

*Just about anything can be used against you in court these days. In one of the very first military commissions held under the Obama administration, a U.S. military judge ruled that confessions obtained by threatening the subject with rape are admissible in court.

*The federal government listens to our cell phones whenever they want and they require that all cell phone companies must be able to pinpoint the locations of all of their customers to within 100 meters.

*According to FBI Director Robert Mueller, “homegrown terrorists” represent just as much of a threat to American national security as al-Qaeda does.

*In Washington D.C., if you do not submit to “random bag checks” while riding the Metro there is a good chance that you could receive a follow-up visit by the FBI or by the Department of Homeland Security.

*If you make food “incorrectly” there is a good chance that you will get raided by the federal government. In fact, the feds raided an Amish farmer at 5 AM in the morning because they claimed that he was was engaged in the interstate sale of raw milk in violation of federal law.

So in light of how extreme our federal government has become, is there anyone out there that still thinks it would be a “crisis” if the government was to shut down for a while?

If our government is going to take away our liberties and freedoms instead of protecting them, then why would it be a bad thing if it shut down for a short time?

It might just get some of the control freaks off our backs for a while.

Yes, we do need to make sure our military men and women are paid. We also need to make sure that our border patrol agents are paid. But if Congress could actually get that accomplished it wouldn’t be too bad at all if the government were to shut down for an extended period of time.

So what do all the rest of you think? Feel free to leave a comment with your opinion about the possibility of a government shutdown below….

That is there greatest fear. Everyone will realize the Government does absolutely nothing positive for us.

Tia

I totally agree with you.. We need to defund the whole alphabet!! USDA, FDA, EPA, DHS etc etc ad nauseum. Also defund & evict the UN along with IMF World Bank etc again..and every global citizen should be sent packing back to Kenya!! America is losing her sovereignty by a trillion stabs at her heart from every direction!! God save America!!

Michael

Good comment Tia.

And thank you for all the retweets on Twitter!

Michael

Lennie Pike

Let me make one correction: they are “our” military men and women, just as much as Congress consists of “our representatives”.

Lennie Pike

And of course the same goes for “our” Border Patrol Agents but except to a higher degree because they are sent out into the vast wilderness in teams of two, against drug cartel armies knowing that if they are lucky enough to shoot a drug cartel gang member with out being killed by a weapon supplied to the drug cartel by the U.S. Government, that they will likely be imprisoned by the U.S. Government for interfering in the business of the criminals who control the U.S. Government.

360 some odd billion drug dollars were deposited with Wells Fargo.

Our “leaders” are vicious criminal killers.

We all know that now.

Terry

This will stop when the feds are forced to stop. The force cannot be applied via violence as they would easily win that battle. Instead the beast must be starved.
Does anyone really believe that if states start to secede that troops would march on San Francisco or Seattle (especially upon orders from BHO)? This time around USA does not have an issue like slavery dividing the nation.
California is a net donor state from what I hear. They could solve many budget problems without tax increases by refusing to send money to Washington and using it within their own borders.
Secession would allow states like California to try all the left-wing ideas they want and sink or swim on their own. We could all decide for ourselves whether we wanted to take part in (and pay for) such experiments.
I suspect that such an idea is not as far-fetched as it would seem at first.

Go ahead and CLOSE it down!
And to really make my day – don’t bother re-opening it!

Neddy

Why does no one ever mention that all this “debt” all our countries owe is to a private banking cartel who “create” money out of thin air but demand to be “paid back” in real assets?

The “world economic crisis” could be solved tomorrow simply by nationalizing those banks.

john w

I don’t have a problem with the idea of law-makers taking an extended vacation. But if a government shut-down means that tens of thousands of government workers take a hit in their paycheck (and people, regardless of the hysteria, most of them are not raking in big bucks), does that really help all the small businesses they patronize every week? And what about all the government contracts? We all know that shutting a job down and then starting it back up is a huge waste of money.

And why is it so much more important for military people to paid than for other people? I know people who have made big bucks in the military and never left the USA. Oh yeah, I forgot. It’s especially important to pay all the military people in Japan and Germany, because their jobs are so dangerous and important, and because paying them to live overseas in peaceful countries does so much to stimulate the American economy.

http://food stingray

well thats us gov s ways

William

And the theater continues…….if $500 BILLION was cut from the FY 2011 deficit, there would still be about a $1 TRILLION deficit. Did you get your stash of gold and silver last year when the prices were low???
When America continues to conduct wars for its empire, the nation continues to collapse.
“Supporting the troops” means NOT sending them into unnecessary wars of choice….but most in America do not recognize that. Last person out, turn out the lights…….

Shyamwolfstrider

Totally agree

Dani Mascort

At the very end of this debt’s bubble, the only remaining choice would be to devide the US in parts and sell it to other countries or multi national corporations.

Obama would not only be the first “color” US President, but also the last President of the US.

My most sincere condolences to the almost extinguished American people.

http://BrophyWorld.com BrophyWorld

The government should have shut down until the budget was balanced, but I see no chance of that happening as long as Democrats and Republicans have a stranglehold over the country.

The United States has accumulated unprecedented debt that cannot be repaid, a huge penalty that will burden you and other income earners for at least the next 40 years. Alternatively, imagine living with a responsible government like Hong Kong, in a Mediterranean climate like California. Chile offers a combination of pleasant climate and fewer government burdens than many others. If you’re ready to shed the debt your government has imposed upon you, it is a good destination to consider:http://brophyworld.com/move-to-santiago-chile/

http://flyoverfeedback.blogspot.com J. P. Morgan

I link to your website from my blog since we seem to be on the same page. Unfortunately, I think we are voices crying out in the wilderness so I have been tempted to just hunker down and survive the coming disaster as best I can. But the idiocy of what is going on in Washington always drives me back to writing. Keep railing, my friend, you are spot on in your writings and maybe someone out there is actually listening.

JP

flubadub

After the mid-term elections we heard the victorious House Republicans proclaiming that “Elections have consequences”. It turns out those consequences amount to having a whole new group of incumbents pissing off the voters so badly that they can’t wait to clean house again through the next election. If they can’t find any more than $38 billion to cut out of a $1.6 trillion deficit how in the name of all that is good and holy will they ever sucessfully reduce a $14 trillion dollar (and growing fast!) national debt? Perspective: I’m saving money to buy a $14,000 used car. I saved $38 last year but I put an additional $1,600 on my credit cards too. Maybe I’ll just take my $38 and buy a case of Sam Adams.

andres olguin

I think goverments all around the world and all this evil society should shutdown forever. We need to God, Jesus on Earth.

Molly

Shutting the .gov down sounds good in theory. They do more harm than good, that’s for sure! BUT you have to think about the thousands, probably tens of thousands, of regular, normal (non-politician) folks who would lose their jobs! There is such a high rate of unemployment as it is; can you imagine adding thousands and thousands more to the unemployment rolls? These hard-working folks are just trying to make a living and to suddenly shut down all the agencies they work for (museums, parks, offices, etc.) would be catastrophic for them and for our economy as a whole.
Should government be smaller and less intrusive–YOU BET! But you can’t do it overnight and any cutbacks that are made will have a profound, devastating effect on the people whose jobs will be cut.

http://www.economicon.info/ Leigh Kimmel

The problem with a government shutdown is that the Senators and Congresspeople continue to be paid their salaries. So they have no strong incentive to work things out.

My own personal opinion is that whenever there’s a budget deadlock like this, we ought to put Congress in a conclave — lock ‘em up, not let them leave Capitol Hill until they have a budget. All the compensation they get during those days is food from an Army mobile kitchen, the same sort of food that our troops in the Middle East are eating.

If conclave works for getting squabbling cardinals to pick a pope, it ought to get Congress to pass a budget.

spendaholics inc.

why not spend money like drunken sailors on libo call, the u.s. credit card has no limit.we’re a two trillion economy (at best) spending 5 trillion, just swipe the card and keep spending

Bob

The Congress are two groups of men fighting in a burning house. I don’t see any help coming from “the Government” anytime soon.

Our financial day of reckoning, as a country, may come about if China blackmails us, and refuses to take any more of our debt, unless we do something odious in return (whatever it may be-they have got plenty of time to think of something). It could come next week, or in 10 years. I don’t think we will be able to solve it, when it does come.

Look at the history of Great Britain, one of the “victors” of World War 1. They were left with an Empire that they were too weak to hold. Who could have imagined, 100 years ago, when the “sun never set on the British flag”, that they would be a fragmented, gravely weakened shell of their former glory?

I believe that we are on the same course. As a country, I believe we are declining financially, at a more and more rapid rate. Short of extreme solutions, I can’t see any painless way out for us. Can any of you?

realism

it’s simply too late, they are arguing about the bar tab on the titanic after the life boats are gone. Once you accept it is over, it’s easy, I use to care; we are broke and defaulting, just the date of the currency waterfall is left to be determined.

macdee

Like Really? A Government shutdown? Like those of us in the private industry really care.
Why don’t they just call it a furlough, like private industry has been doing to their workers since the start of the depression (not recession).
The only thing that sucks wold be a delay in income tax returns. Other then that no one cares except the government workers who would be losing a few days pay.

Cathy

If the Republicans were even a tiny bit interested & serious about the deficit they would have never BLACKMAILED the Democrats into extending the Bush tax-cuts in exchange for extending UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS. They wouldn’t be placing the burden solely on what’s left of the middle class & the vulnerable.
The Republicans HATE to help those that really need it. They ONLY BELIEVE IN CORPORATE WELFARE & WELFARE FOR THE RICHEST. THEY BELIEVE THE RICH SHOULDN’T PAY A DIME IN TAXES & NEITHER SHOULD CORPORATIONS- EVEN WHEN THEY SEND AMERICAN JOBS OVERSEAS!
No they want to rescind child labor laws & cut funding for education. The REASON FOR THAT IS THEY WANT CHILDREN TO WORK INSTEAD!
The wealthiest in this country HAVE REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION. Everyone else has taxation without representation!
The Republicans WANT TO POISON US IN OUR FOOD, WATER, AIR & WHATEVER ELSE CAN CAUSE HARM TO US! They are determined to ALLOW the destruction of the planet as long as they get their BLOOD MONEY!
Then they have the GALL to say they’re Christians & pro-life! They are neither! Once someone is born they’d rather them starve, be homeless, poor or anything else that can happen rather than have any social safety net.
The crisis we’re in now is the RESULT OF 30+ YEARS OF THEIR AGENDA! Deregulation, tax cuts for those that have more money than they could spend in 20 lifetimes, allowing outsourcing all the good paying jobs & IMPORTING FOREIGN WORKERS EACH & EVERY MONTH, 75,000-125,000 just on the H-1B Visa program ALONE!
The Dems aren’t innocent either, but they aren’t anywhere near as GREEDY or SINISTER as the Republicans are.
I warned for MORE THAN 10 YEARS, that Wall Street was going to crash, BEFORE IT HAPPENED. I said it was just a matter of time, within a decade, guaranteed. Warned about the housing bubble when all the experts said it wasn’t.
There’s so much more to this. And it isn’t over. So far I was RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING, EXCEPT 1 THING, I thought the ones responsible for the mess we’re in would be brought to justice.

sonnyboy

The government needs to shut down and stay shut until it is allowed to spend money only on a dollar in dollar out basis. If it takes in 2 trillion dollars in taxes and revenues, then it can only spend 2 trillion and that’s it. These idiotic deficits that the government is running up lead to inflation for the rest of us. This nation is in deep trouble.

http://economiccollpase Dang

Shut it down i dont think so. Theres still plenty of value the gov can get its hands on in there check book. The looting of america by our own gov. Before they really do default.
1. All the money in 401ks that havent been taxed yet.
2. All the gov land it owns. minerals oil
3. All the gold in fort knox an new york bank
4. All the housing property in freddy,fanny
All this wealth an more will be liquidated turned into digital dollars an will vanish over seas. An also all the money the gov has in the stock market proping it up. Some day soon the gov will pull there money out. Starting the final lights out for the usa. An when the lights come back on you see NWO. All my opinion

Dave

SHUT IT DOWN…PLLLLEEEEAAASSSE!!!! Yes give us a break from these crooked traitors!

Robert

Our own government is creating enemies among it’s own citizens. I guess they do it for job security. We are tagged as domestic terrorist if we believe in that bad document called “The Constitution”. Oh, my. We are tagged as potential domestic terrorists if we listen to Ron Paul, like firearms and support the 2nd amendment. We need to keep voting the clowns out of office and elect better officials than the ass clowns that are in Washington now. 2010 was a good start.

Robert

I say shut the Feds down. The longer the better. Our economy may actually have a chance to improve. I sure hope that the idiots at the Federal Reserve shut down the printing press. QE2 is hurting the poor the most by decreasing the purchasing power of the dollar. They say there is no inflation, they should ask a single mother trying to keep food on the table. I be she would smack them up side the head for saying such a stupid thing. Our State governments need to get their act together and quit being afraid of the Federal Government. They are the ones who should be in charge, not the bloated Federal Government.

TucsonKK

The Good Old Tea Party/REPS—

Their favorite spin is what about our kids & grandkids
Well getting rid of protection agencies will lead to destruction of lakes,strams,oceans,air,mountain top removal,end of our federal parks,dead wildlife,posion food,lead poising in toys,pet food killer,etc.

The PUPPET MASTERS(big business,Koch&Koch,Oil,Farmers,GE,Wall Street,ETC) demand that their Tea Party FREAKS perform so these companies can destroy our earth & Water and that’s OK
Look at India & China & Africa (Water is so polluted they have disease & lack of drinking water)
What about our KIds & Grandkids??????
Why should the Pentagon get $700 Billion?
Cut that in half
Remove all tax breaks & loopholes
Everyone pays the same % of tax
Rich should pay more into Social Security
Single Payer Insurance for all
Reduce corporate tax rate to 25% but no tax breaks or loopholes & no tax havens
Punish with huge fines & prison for above tax cheats

All combos have been tried in Government and they are all bought & paid all being puppets & liars!
We the people need to wake up and clean house and get rid of all Tea Party Freaks and Liars!!

impeachRonPaul

Typical republican dribble. Pay trillions to military and cut social services. Your spending on the miolitary is the problem, not the elderly and education. Republicans are war crazy and hate the middle class.

lost-control

Why are we only cutting social programs? If we cut back the Military, we could balance the budget…

I, as an american citizen, do not benefit from a bloated military budget…JMHO

http://erectuswalksamongstus.com Charlie Shkleen

Yeah, it WILL be our kids and grandchildren
who suffer; after all, no fat-bastard
politician is going to take a pay cut or
lose his job, you can take THAT to the bank!

morpheus

It would be much better to shut it down and rebuild it. In America we don’t solve problems anymore. We like to complain and that’s it. Wake up America. It’s time to regroup.

A government that consumes 10% of our GDP in deficit is absolutely a bad idea for everyone. It is best that the federal government seizes itself and thus the harm done to billions of people in this planet could be reduced a great deal.
This is a government that is named “the Great Satan” by people that can see the secrets of heavens. Its existence and activities give the whole United States of America, especially its honest hard working and kind people a bad name, a very very bad name indeed…
The world will be a better place without the Federal Government of USA.

Otown Right Guy

ImpeachRonPaul displaying his stupidity once again. Ron Paul is one of the only Republicans, who want us to close foreign bases and cut defense spending. Very few Democrats even want to do that.

Mike

We all know the drill, or at least those who have studied history do. America is doomed. Pessimistic? Perhaps. True? Absolutely.

The banks have been screwing us since 1789, power has been unconstitutionally usurped since 1791. Once the founding generation died, it was only a matter of time. It’s history, it’s fact, it’s human nature.

Benjamin Franklin prophetically warned that this nation would end in despotism. Well, here we are, and it’s just the beginning.

I have said this many times, we must turn to Christ. He’s is our only hope, the only hope anyone has ever had. We may not be able to save our country, but we can be saved, individually, by our Creator.

Tom Baxter

How can we continue to guarantee Goldman Sacks growing profit if we waste money on socialist crap like public education or infrastructure? Who would finance nuclear power if the taxpayers don’t? We would have no more success against the savage terrorists today than our forefathers had against terrorist savages the exterminated without taxpayer dollars.

http://www.pathtoasia.com rhea

Nobody wanted a shutdown, though some Dems might not have been exactly paralyzed in fear over the prospect. The world is becoming an incredibly crazy place, and at times the amount of bad news that is coming out can seem almost overwhelming. Everywhere you look, the poor are being oppressed, our politicians are making stupid decisions and evil is on the march.

to many opinions!!!shut it = ie default on the bonds and its literary over for usa. no more medicaid more septis more cadavers for the medical schools face reality u r poooorrr

steve mawson

Face it…there is no hope. No salvation. It’s the end of the (your/our) world. Enjoy what’s left as it is as much as you can. Arrive at the end having done that which you wanted to do. Nothing will nor can stave off the inevitable, not withstanding the crying from the bleachers. Too little, way too late. Americans sadly, very sadly indeed, became fat, dumb and stupid and now those in whose trust you placed have stabbed you so much in the back and have become so used to the benefits therefrom, that nothing will ever change the endemic corrupt system of government, bureaucracy & private industry doing what they want as they deem fit. Short of a full blown civil war and revolution. Ah but then, you’re all too busy messing in every other country’s own civil war ! Sad. Meanwhile, enjoy pie and Charlie Sheen’s rants. He’s got the whole notion clear in his head – it’s all pointless so why not just be an idiot. It makes no difference now anyway.